1570 May 22 CHAP XIX Scots seemed very near his heart, but she sent an order to Scotland for the recall of the army, which encountered Drury on his return to Edinburgh. Morton would gladly have detained him, at least till Grange could be compelled or persuaded to surrender the castle; but the Queen's commands were peremptory; he made the necessary excuses and fell back at once to Berwick. It might have been thought, as Cecil hoped and Bacon said, that Elizabeth, after inflicting punishment so tremendous on Mary Stuart's friends, would not have deceived herself with the expectation that she could recover their confidence or induce them any more to look upon her as a friend. Had her fluctuations been assumed to cover a purpose which in her heart she had definitely formed; had she been hypocritical and deceitful, and not weak and uncertain, such no doubt would have been the effect. She would have seen that she had gone too far to retreat, she would have avowed her real purpose and gone through with it. But Elizabeth was very different from all this. The principles which divided her Council divided herself from herself. She had no sooner committed herself to one course of action than the merits of another became doubly obvious to her, while it gratified her sense of power to strike ånd to smile, to be alternately the lightning and the sunshine. She perhaps flattered herself that the Scots, after suffering from the invasion, would come to her feet like children beaten into submission; a letter from Maitland to Sussex indicated that they were as yet far from any such condition. เ 'You tell me,' Maitland wrote, 'that her Majesty's 'forces are revoked. I am glad thereof more than I was at their coming, and it is not amiss for their ease to have 1570 June a breathing time and some rest between one exploit and CHAP XIX 'another. This is the third journey they have made in 'Scotland since your Lordship came to the Borders, and 'have been so occupied in every one of them, that it might well be said, if the amity and good intelligence 'between the realms would permit that phrase of language, to term the Englishmen as our forefathers were 'wont to do they have reasonably well acquit themselves ' of the duty of old enemies, and have burnt and spoiled 'as much ground within Scotland as any army of Eng'land did in one year, these hundred years by-past, 'which suffice for a two months' work, although you 'do no more. The rude people in Scotland will some'times speak rashly after their fashion, but I am content 'to follow the phrase of your language as better 'acquainted with the same, and say that you have not 'been idle in the pursuit of her Majesty's rebels.' 1 may The order of the day, however, was once more to be conciliation. The Bishop of Ross, after a short delay, was admitted to an audience. He swore that he had known nothing of the rebellion, and although Elizabeth possessed the clearest evidence to the contrary, she affected to believe him. He was sent down to Chatsworth, to which his mistress had been removed, to talk over the intended arrangements, and the Queen, for the further guidance of Lord Sussex, told him that 'although in all worldly things there were some uncertainties,' she had made up her mind to the course which promised least disadvantage. The Queen of Scots would have been long since restored 'but for such impediments as from time to time had been ministered by herself.' There was now a better prospect of a good 1 Maitland to Sussex, June 2.-MSS. Scotland. 1570 June CHAP XIX conclusion. Both parties in Scotland must lay down. their arms. She would take care of the interests of the Lords who had supported the King, and Sussex must learn from them what conditions they would consider satisfactory. In fact they had better send commissioners with full powers to London. Discretion should be used in opening the matter to them; 'discomfort' might otherwise make them desperate. As to the troops at Berwick, the Exchequer would no longer bear the expense of their maintenance. To disband them publicly might be too patent a confession of weakness, and Sussex was ordered therefore to get rid of them'in some secret and indirect sort.'1 The conspirators in London, meanwhile, were in high spirits at their victory over Cecil and Bacon, and in full assurance of success. The Queen of Scots wrote letters of passionate gratitude to Elizabeth, promising faithfully to be all that she could wish.2 The Bishop of Ross, before going to her, talked over the situation with Don Guerau. Don Guerau recommended that to mislead Elizabeth she should still seem to comply with every demand which might be made upon her, while the Catholics should hold themselves ready for a universal insurrection the instant that she was free. La Mothe had served the Bishop's turn upon the Council; it seems that he had more trust in Spain for assistance in the field. The fear was that France might get the start and secure Mary Stuart for Anjou. The papal Elizabeth to Sussex, May 31.- 2 Letters of Mary Stuart, June and It is here doubted that the Queen of Scots being released shall marry M. de Anjou, and thereby possess him of the present estate of Scotland and of the remainder of the Crown of England. It is said that the late messenger from the Pope which brought the sword and cap for Monsieur, doth most earnestly solicit this cause. The Cardinal of Lorraine said at the council board, that the peace once made here, it should be for the 1570 June Nuncio at Paris was strongly in favour of the match, and CHAP XIX the Pope was ready to grant the necessary dispensation.1 It was thought that a possibility so much dreaded would rouse Alva from his inaction. Philip's new Queen2 was on her way through the Netherlands to Madrid. Her voyage and the insecurity of the, seas had required the assembly of a powerful escort, and the fleet which was floating on the Scheldt could be directed to a second. purpose if an opportunity presented itself for a sudden landing at the mouth of the Thames. If by any means the release of the Queen of Scots could be effected, fifteen or twenty thousand men could be thrown across, before Elizabeth could have notice of her danger. The Catholics would immediately rise, Mary Stuart would be proclaimed, France paralysed, the Queen taken prisoner, and Cecil and his party destroyed. The country would be conquered without a struggle, the pirate fleets annihilated, and, among other happy issues, the revolution that overthrew Elizabeth would end the rebellion in the Low Countries. By disbanding her army she was preparing her neck for the stroke. reputation of this Crown to declare an open war against England.'Norris to Cecil, June 15. Norris to Elizabeth, June 20.-MSS. France. 1 The relationship between Mary Stuart and the Duc d'Anjou was precisely the same as that between Henry VIII. and his brother's widow. 2 Anne of Austria, daughter of Maximilian. En el mismo tiempo con quinze ó viente mill infantes y la caballeria que pareciese conveniente entrar por esta Isla, haciendo levantar todos los Catolicos, los quales, si se aseguran de la persona de la Reyna, tendrian la mayor parte de la empresa acabada. aun asegurarse luego de Cecil y Leicester Ꭹ Bedford seria muy con- CHAP XIX 1570 June Thus it was agreed between the Bishop and Don Guerau that no concessions however extravagant should be refused. When the Queen of Scots' foot was on her own soil they would crumble to pieces of themselves. After parting from the Ambassador, the Bishop ventured to the lodgings of the young Lord Southampton, one of the intended leaders of the insurrection, for with him too there was much to arrange and explain. It happened, however, that Southampton's house was one of those on which Cecil was keeping a watch. This nobleman had been notoriously favourable to the enterprise of the Northern Earls, and in fact he had been on the edge of declaring for them. After his defeat in the Council, Cecil had redoubled his private vigilance, and the Bishop of Ross was seen stealing at midnight from the door. He had started by daybreak for Chatsworth; the information came too late for his detention; but the Queen's suspicions were violently reawakened, if indeed they had ever really slept. The preparations in the Scheldt had alarmed her also; and almost at the same moment came the unwelcome news that Lord Morley, Lord Derby's son-in-law, whose loyalty had been hitherto unquestioned, had withdrawn without leave from England, and had gone to Brussels to the Duke of Alva. A letter which he wrote to the Queen when he was beyond her reach did not tend to reassure her. Lord Morley accused Cecil and Bacon of ruining the country, persecuting the nobility, and introducing into England the wildest and worst of the revolutionary passions of the Continent. He said that the ancient order, the honourable traditions of the realm, were set at nought by them. They had maintained 'that the opinions of the Peers were of no importance,' that her Highness |